Adjustment

Hey guys,

Just realized it had been a while since I wrote. Okay, I thought I'd post you a couple of pictures of our new flat. However, our internet connection has been EXTREMELY sketchy here. I'm not sure why. I can get online, but then the connection dies after a minute or two. So, I'm going to shoot for one picture. If I can get that much uploaded, I'll be happy.  (It's up!  This one is of the kitchen-nook.  It's probably the part of the apartment I'm the proudest of.  Ok, picture 2 is of our sitting room.  No pink wall like the last place!  I'm so proud!  Okay, now I'm going to try for picture 3.  Got it!  Okay, picture 3 is my room.  Notice the guitar lying on top of the unmade bed.  I am such a rock star! )  Okay, I just realized that the pictures posted in the opposite order that I thought they would.  So, picture 1 is on the bottom, etc . . .

I also thought I'd clue you in to a couple of things here. The culture here is very nocturnal. Literally, nothing happens before ten in the morning, and almost nothing happens before noon. Only in Egypt can you call a friend at one in the afternoon and have to worry that you might be waking him up.

I've also made a couple of great friends here. It's funny. One of my friends is a guy that was helping us find an apartment when we first got here. But when he found out that I knew someone from his hometown . . . the doors of relationship flew right open. It was crazy! I'm still learning about the culture here, but I've started to notice another major difference. In the States, things are determined by how hard you work. If you work hard you advance. If you're lazy, you get nothing. But the culture here is based on relationships. If you know the right people, you can get almost anything you want. And, a friend of a friend gets an almost immediate welcome into relationship. It's fun. Almost any time I buy anything or do anything one of my friends tells me, "you should have talked to me first. I know someone who does that."

Okay, that's it for now. Peace . . .

Shazzam! Brand new start!

Hello everyone!

So, I'm in a brand new town, trying to figure out how life works here.  I've been here on the Red Sea coast for the last couple of days.  I think I got in two night ago.  Anyway, it was a mad rush to try and find an apartment before it got REALLY expensive living at a hotel.  Good news!  We found one!  It took us almost a month to find a place when we first got to Cairo.  But we managed to find one and get moved in in less that 24 hours here. 

Just figuring out how to do life in a new town is kind of a bummer.  I've realized that as much as I rebel against a schedule any time that I have one, I really am a creature of habit at heart.  (Mom, if you're reading this - stop laughing!)  This from the man who hasn't been on time to anything for the last two years :)  Leaving behind friends in Cairo was tough.  But I've been invited to a wedding in Cairo in about a month, so I think I'll be heading back for that.

In Cairo there was a really big community of ex-pats.  So finding friendship and relationship was pretty easy.  But it's been a little tougher here.  There aren't many ex-pats here, so finding community has been a little harder.  Most of my social interactions are in arabic too, which definitely limits my ability to interact.  It's strange.  I think I'm kind of a funny guy when I'm speaking english, but I just don't come across as funny in arabic.  It's hard to speak freely and crack jokes when you have to think about everything you say to make sure it makes sense.

No pictures this time, but I'll try to get some up in the next couple of days.  Au revoir . . .  (Yes that's French for you Jerome!)

Road less travelled

Okay, so my sense of direction is legendary . . . for being terrible! Anyone who's every travelled with me knows to ask me where I think we should go, then go the other direction.

I didn't have much to do today, so I decided to try a little experiment. I know a lot of parts of Cairo pretty well, but still don't have a really good grasp of where they are in relation to each other. But, I had a flash of inspiration today. It's the same Nile in my part of town as downtown, right? So, I decided to try to walk from my house to downtown. No problem, right?

Three and a half hours and two liters of water later, I finally got to downtown. A summer afternoon was definitely not the right time to investigate this hypothesis! Let's just say that the one pound metro ticket is well worth it! My curiosity is appeased, and I will definitely sleep well tonight.